ABSTRACT

This chapter examines the central process of healing in magical transformation. Healing forms a large part of a magician's initial work, and psychotherapies have had a profound effect on contemporary magical practices. The chapter also examines the relationship between Freud and the occult and the effect that psychotherapies have had on magical work. It suggests that magical identities are structured through a psychospiritual interaction with the otherworld, rather than constructed from social discourses of the ordinary world, as suggested by some recent works on identity formation in the social sciences. The chapter deals with the important issue of power. The acquisition of power is central to the magical process, but how it is used is often at variance with the ideal practice—that of self-transformation. The chapter tackles some of the contradictions of magical empowerment: the use and abuse of power.